Marriage | Page 5

I think it without the least exception the cleverest thing
that ever was written, and in wit far surpassing Fielding.' Then she said
as to our other books they would all sink to nothingness before yours,
that they were not fit to be mentioned in the same day, and that she felt
quite discouraged from writing when she thought of yours. The whole

conversation of the aunties [3] made her screech with laughing; and, in
short, I can neither record nor describe all that she said; far from
exaggerating it, I don't say half enough, but I only wish you had seen
the effect it produced. I am sure you will be the first author of the age."
[1] Lady Charlotte Campbell, her aunt, better known latterly as Lady
Charlotte Bury, and celebrated for her beauty and accomplishments.
[2] Miss Mure of Caldwell.
[3] These oddities were the three Misses Edmonstone, of the Duntreath
family, and old family friends, after one or whom Miss Ferrier was
named.
In another letter she writes:--
"I had an immense packet from Lady C. the other day, which I confess
rather disappointed me, for I expected volumes of new compositions.
On opening it, what should it prove but your book returned? so I shall
keep it safe till I see you. She was profuse in its praises, and so was
mamma, who said she was particularly taken with Lady Juliana's
brother, [1] he was so like the duke. Lady C. said she had read it all
deliberately and critically, and pronounced it capital, with a dash under
it. Lady C. begs that in your enumeration of Lady Olivia's peccadilloes
you will omit waltzes."
[1] Lord Courtland.
That dance had just been introduced in London (1811), and the season
of that year Miss Clavering spent with her aunt, Lady Charlotte, in the
metropolis, in a round of gaiety, going to parties at Kensington Palace
(where the Princess of Wales [1] then lived), Devonshire House, and
the witty Duchess of Gordon's, one of the "Empresses of Fashion," as
Walpole calls her. Àpropos of waltzes, she writes to Miss Ferrier:--
[1] Lady Charlotte was one of the Princess's ladies-in-waiting.
"They are all of a sudden become so much the rage here that people

meet in the morning at one another's houses to learn them. And they are
getting on very much. Lady Charlotte and I get great honour for the
accomplishment, and I have improved a few scholars. Clanronald [1] is
grown so detestably fine. He waltzes with me because he thinks he
thereby shows off his figure, but as to speaking to me or Lady Charlotte
he thinks himself much above that. He is in much request at present
because of his dancing; next to him Lord Hartington is, I think, the best
dancer; he is, besides, very fond of it, and is much above being fine; I
never met with a more natural, boyish creature."
[1] Macdonald of Clanronald, a great beau in the fashionable London
world.
To return to the novel. The only portion from Miss Clavering's pen is
the history of Mrs. Douglas in the first volume, and are, as she herself
remarked, "the only few pages that will be skipped." She further adds:--
"Make haste and print it then, lest one of the Miss Edmonstones should
die, as then I should think you would scarce venture for fear of being
haunted.
* * * * *
"I shall hasten to burn your last letter, as you mention something of
looking out for a father for your bantling, so I don't think it would be
decent to let anybody get a sight of such a letter!"
At last, in 1818, the novel was published by the late Mr. Blackwood,
and drew forth loud plaudits from the wondering public, as to who the
author of so original a book could be. "In London it is much admired,
and generally attributed to Walter Scott," so writes a friend to Miss
Ferrier; and she replies in her humorous style: "Whosever it is, I have
met with nothing that has interested me since." Sir Walter must have
been flattered at his being supposed its father, for he says, in the
conclusion of the Tales of my Landlord:--
"There remains behind not only a large harvest, but labourers capable
of gathering it in; more than one writer has of late displayed talents of

this description, and if the present author, himself a phantom, may be
permitted to distinguish a brother, or perhaps a sister, shadow, he
would mention in particular the author of the very lively work entitled
Marriage."
Mr. Blackwood, whose opinion is of some value, thought very highly
of Marriage, and he writes to Miss Ferrier (1817):--
"Mr. B. will not allow himself to think for one moment that